Edmonton will host most of the best under-20 players our country has to offer starting Wednesday August 3rd. Hockey Canada has invited 47 players to this year's camp; four goalies, 17 D-men and 26 forwards, but some of the invitees will likely be in the NHL in October, and won't be available to help Canada try and regain the gold medal after back-to-back silver medals.

Alberta hasn't hosted the WJC since 1995 when Red Deer did an outstanding job of welcoming the junior hockey world. Canada won gold in 1995, the third of five consecutive gold medals, and 1995 was the last tournament decided by the round robin standings. In 1996 they implemented the the 2 groups, round-robin/preliminaries and playoff format. In the 16 years of the playoff format Canada has seven golds, six silvers, three bronze and an 8th in 1998. I'm sure non-Canuck fans attribute that 8th place finish to having Roberto Luongo starting in goal, but I digress.

Earlier this week Hockey Canada added hulking D-man, Jamieson Oleksiak, who was drafted 14th overall by the Dallas Stars this past June to the roster. The late addition of Oleksiak leaves team Red with nine D-men, which isn't ideal, but they couldn't pass up a guy with his size. Oleksiak's mother is American and his father is Canadian. He went to the USA junior camp last year and he was torn over which camp he should attend this year. He finally decided on Canada and Hockey Canada wisely accepted him this week.

It will be an exciting camp that wraps up with two Red and White games. The first game goes Saturday August 6th at 7:00 p.m. at Rexall Place in Edmonton, while the second game is Sunday August 7th at 7:00 p.m. in Fort McMurray. Five local players should have a large cheering section. Oilers' draft picks Tyler Bunz and Dillon Simpson are from St. Albert and Edmonton respectively, while Joe Morrow, Mark Pysyk and Duncan Siemens are from Sherwood Park.

Here are the rosters for the Red and White games. The seven returning players have an * beside their name.

TEAM RED/ ÉQUIPE ROUGE

Name

S/C

Ht.

Wt.

Born

Hometown

Club Team

Pro Status

Nom

T/C

G.

P.

Né

Ville d’origine

Équipe de club

Statut prof.

Goaltenders/Gardiens de but

Louis Domingue

R/D

6’3”

191

03/06/92

Mont St-Hilaire, Que./QC

Quebec (QMJHL)

PHX ’10 (5, 138)

*Mark Visentin

L/G

6’1.5”

198

08/07/92

Waterdown, Ont.

Niagara (OHL)

PHX ’10 (1, 27)

Defence/Défense

Nathan Beaulieu

L/G

6’1.5”

175

12/05/92

Strathroy, Ont.

Saint John (QMJHL)

MTL ’11 (1, 17)

Cody Ceci

R/D

6’1.5”

203

12/21/93

Ottawa, Ont.

Ottawa (OHL)

2012 Dft/Rep.

Brandon Gormley

L/G

6’2”

192

02/18/92

Murray River, P.E.I./I.-P.-E.

Moncton (QMJHL)

PHX ’10 (1, 13)

*Erik Gudbranson

R/D

6’4”

211

01/07/92

Orleans, Ont.

Kingston (OHL)

FLA ’10 (1, 3)

Scott Harrington

L/G

6’0.5”

200

03/10/93

Kingston, Ont.

London (OHL)

PIT ’11 (2, 54)

Martin Lefebvre

L/G

5’11”

180

06/23/92

Terrebonne, Que./QC

Quebec (QMJHL)

Undrafted/Non-rep.

Jamie Oleksiak

L/G

6'7"

244

12/21/92

Toronto, Ont.

Saginaw (OHL)

DAL ’11 (1, 14)

Mark Pysyk

R/D

6’1”

187

01/11/92

Sherwood Park, Alta./Alb.

Edmonton (WHL)

BUF ’10 (1, 23)

Dillon Simpson

L/G

6’0.5”

192

02/10/93

Edmonton, Alta./Alb.

North Dakota (WCHA)

EDM ’11 (4, 92)

Forwards/Avants

Michaël Bournival

L/G

5’11”

179

05/31/92

Shawinigan-Sud, Que./QC

Shawinigan (QMJHL)

MTL/COL ’10 (3, 71)

*Brett Connolly

R/D

6’2”

181

05/02/92

Prince George, B.C./C.-B.

Prince George (WHL)

TB ’10 (1, 6)

Brendan Gallagher

R/D

5’8.5”

175

06/05/92

Tsawwassen, B.C./C.-B.

Vancouver (WHL)

MTL ’10 (5, 147)

Freddie Hamilton

R/D

6’0.5”

190

01/01/92

Toronto, Ont.

Niagara (OHL)

SJ ’10 (5, 129)

Patrick Holland

R/D

5’11.5”

167

01/07/92

Lethbridge, Alta./Alb.

Tri-City (WHL)

CGY ’10 (7, 193)

Jonathan Huberdeau

L/G

6’1”

170

06/04/93

Prévost, Que./QC

Saint John (QMJHL)

FLA ’11 (1, 3)

*Ryan Johansen

R/D

6’2”

193

07/31/92

Port Moody, B.C./C.-B.

Portland (WHL)

CBJ ’10 (1, 4)

Lucas Lessio

L/G

6’1”

197

01/23/93

Maple, Ont.

Oshawa (OHL)

PHX ’11 (2, 56)

Brett Ritchie

R/D

6’3”

210

07/01/93

Orangeville, Ont.

Sarnia (OHL)

DAL ’11 (2, 44)

Michael Sgarbossa

L/G

5’10”

171

07/25/92

Campbellville, Ont.

Sudbury (OHL)

SJ ’10 (FA/JA)

Ryan Spooner

L/G

5’10”

181

01/30/92

Kanata, Ont.

Kingston (OHL)

BOS ’10 (2, 45)

Mark Stone

R/D

6’2.5”

195

05/13/92

Winnipeg, Man.

Brandon (WHL)

OTT ’10 (6, 178)

Ryan Strome

R/D

6’0”

175

07/11/93

Mississauga, Ont.

Niagara (OHL)

NYI ’11 (1, 5)

TEAM WHITE/ ÉQUIPE BLANCHE

Name

S/C

Ht.

Wt.

Born

Hometown

Club Team

Pro Status

Nom

T/C

G.

P.

Né

Ville d’origine

Équipe de club

Statut prof.

Goaltenders/Gardiens de but

Tyler Bunz

L/G

6’1”

200

02/11/92

St. Albert, Alta./Alb.

Medicine Hat (WHL)

EDM ’10 (5, 121)

Scott Wedgewood

L/G

6’0.5”

185

08/14/92

Brampton, Ont.

Plymouth (OHL)

NJ ’10 (3, 84)

Defence/Défense

Jérôme Gauthier-Leduc

R/D

6’1.5”

180

07/30/92

Quebec City, Que./QC

Rimouski (QMJHL)

BUF ’10 (3, 68)

Dougie Hamilton

R/D

6’4”

187

06/17/93

Toronto, Ont.

Niagara (OHL)

BOS ’11 (1, 9)

Joe Morrow

L/G

6’0”

197

12/09/92

Sherwood Park, Alta./Alb.

Portland (WHL)

PIT ’11 (1, 23)

Ryan Murphy

R/D

5’11”

176

03/31/93

Aurora, Ont.

Kitchener (OHL)

CAR ’11 (1, 12)

Ryan Murray

L/G

6’0.5”

190

09/27/93

White City, Sask.

Everett (WHL)

2012 Dft/Rep.

Stuart Percy

L/G

6’0.5”

186

05/18/93

Oakville, Ont.

Mississauga St. Michael’s (OHL)

TOR ’11 (1, 25)

Matthew Petgrave

L/G

6’1”

185

01/28/92

Brampton, Ont.

Owen Sound (OHL)

Undrafted/Non-rep.

Duncan Siemens

L/G

6’2.5”

192

09/07/93

Sherwood Park, Alta./Alb.

Saskatoon (WHL)

COL ’11 (1, 11)

Forwards/Avants

*Sean Couturier

L/G

6’3”

192

12/07/92

Bathurst, N.B./N.-B.

Drummondville (QMJHL)

PHI ’11 (1, 8)

Phillip Danault

L/G

6’2”

170

02/24/93

Victoriaville, Que./QC

Victoriaville (QMJHL)

CHI ’11 (1, 26)

*Quinton Howden

L/G

6’2.5”

192

01/21/92

Oak Bank, Man.

Moose Jaw (WHL)

FLA ’10 (1, 25)

Boone Jenner

L/G

6’1”

204

06/15/93

Dorchester, Ont.

Oshawa (OHL)

CBJ ’11 (2, 37)

Greg McKegg

L/G

5’11.5”

194

06/17/92

St. Thomas, Ont.

Erie (OHL)

TOR ’10 (3, 62)

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

L/G

6’0”

166

04/12/93

Burnaby, B.C./C.-B.

Red Deer (WHL)

EDM ’11 (1, 1)

Matthew Puempel

L/G

6’0”

198

01/24/93

Essex, Ont.

Peterborough (OHL)

OTT ’11 (1, 24)

Ty Rattie

R/D

5’11”

163

02/05/93

Airdrie, Alta./Alb.

Portland (WHL)

STL ’11 (2, 32)

Mark Scheifele

R/D

6’1.5”

182

03/15/93

Kitchener, Ont.

Barrie (OHL)

WPG ’11 (1, 7)

*Jaden Schwartz

L/G

5’10”

184

06/25/92

Emerald Park, Sask.

Colorado College (WCHA)

STL ’10 (1, 14)

Devante Smith-Pelly

R/D

6’0”

207

06/14/92

Scarborough, Ont.

Misssissauga St. Michael’s (OHL)

ANA ’10 (2, 42)

Christian Thomas

R/D

5’8.5”

170

05/26/92

Toronto, Ont.

Oshawa (OHL)

NYR ’10 (2, 40)

Tyler Toffoli

R/D

6’0”

181

04/24/92

Scarborough, Ont.

Ottawa (OHL)

LA ’10 (2, 47)

Johansen and Gudbranson will lmost likely be playing for Columbus and Florida this year, so realistically they are only here to get ready for the NHL. I think Nugent-Hopkins will play in Edmonton, while Howden, Huberdeau, Couturier, Connolly, Schwartz, Strome and Scheifele might stick in the Show as well. The battle for the 13 forward positions will be the most intriguing, considering we could see as many as five or six of them stick with their NHL teams.

Visentin seems like a lock to grab one of the goalie spots, while Pysyk and Gormley will anchor the blueline. It will be a competitive battle for the five remaining spots on the blueline between Siemens, Hamilton, Oleksiak, Gauthier-Leduc, Morrow, Beaulieu, Murphy and the highly-skilled Murray and Ceci.

All the Canadian teams, except Vancouver, will be represented next week.

If you need a hockey fix to get you through the rest of the summer, I recommend grabbing some tickets for one of the Red and White games. They are highly competitive and the effort and energy is incredible.

One of Canada's most versatile sports personalities. Jason hosts The Jason Gregor Show, weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m., on TSN 1260, and he writes a column every Monday in the Edmonton Journal. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JasonGregor

Jason, You think there's any chance RNH makes the Oilers and they let him play in the tournament anyway?

I would be surprised. Unless he was really struggling and barely playing, I'm not sure why you would send him away from your NHL club for a month. If he is in the NHL he will want to stay with the Oilers rather than leave.

Jason, You think there's any chance RNH makes the Oilers and they let him play in the tournament anyway?

Oilers management has repeated stated that if RNH makes the Oilers it will be because he is ready for regular minutes against NHL talent.

Sending him back for the World Juniors means they will be paying him money to play against a bunch of kids, most of which will not be NHL regulars.

It never makes sense to send someone back for the World Junior - though I would love to be proved wrong.

Edit: I wonder if the World Juniors is the tipping point on the decision to send RNH down. It doesn't make sense to send him if he's in the NHL, but it's a fantastic experience on a world stage if he is in junior anyways.

Oilers management has repeated stated that if RNH makes the Oilers it will be because he is ready for regular minutes against NHL talent.

Sending him back for the World Juniors means they will be paying him money to play against a bunch of kids, most of which will not be NHL regulars.

It never makes sense to send someone back for the World Junior - though I would love to be proved wrong.

Edit: I wonder if the World Juniors is the tipping point on the decision to send RNH down. It doesn't make sense to send him if he's in the NHL, but it's a fantastic experience on a world stage if he is in junior anyways.

Seguin would've made sense last year. Heck it would've even made sense to send him back to juniors after the tournament.

I would be surprised. Unless he was really struggling and barely playing, I'm not sure why you would send him away from your NHL club for a month. If he is in the NHL he will want to stay with the Oilers rather than leave.

I think they would. They don't expect to be in the playoffs and the worlds would be a good thing for the kid. Gives the team a month to evaluate some other talent for a month, maybe lander.

Can't see the Oilers sending one of their most productive point producers away for a month at Christmas. The risk of injury alone would put the kibosh on that possibilty. Should be great to see where he's at next week, but he won't be a part of that Xmas tournament.

Can't see the Oilers sending one of their most productive point producers away for a month at Christmas. The risk of injury alone would put the kibosh on that possibilty. Should be great to see where he's at next week, but he won't be a part of that Xmas tournament.

Injuries can happen anytime and anywhere, last season was a good example of that, so risking injuries doesn't matter. And I expect RNH to struggle a little bit at the beginning of the season same as Hall last year so the WJ might be at the perfect time to give him a bit of a jump.

With RNH it will be a fun year to watch no matter what happens. If he is in Red Deer can he take them farther than last year? Watching World Jr. tourney will be very sweet. If he is in Edmonton just watching the growth will be fun as well. I really do not see a loosing situation unless he is injured.